In this age of communication, the speed of information delivery can affect the outcome of business negotiations and influence national and international politics, as well as affect the well-being of individuals. Communication devices such as wireline and wireless telephones, facsimile transmitters, voice mail systems and pagers are used to speed communications between parties. However, the delivery speed of communications is hampered by the assignation of identification numbers such as telephone numbers to particular locations, rather than to particular individuals. Thus, a caller attempting to deliver a communication to a particular party by telephone will succeed only if the party is located at the site of the called telephone.
If the party is not located at the called site, the caller has the option of trying to deliver the communication to another location by calling a different telephone number. For this option, the caller must possess or obtain other telephone numbers of the telephones at the site where the called party may be located. The caller also has the option of repeatedly calling the first telephone number until the called party returns to the site of the first telephone. This option is, at least, inefficient. The necessity of resorting to either of these options because of the assignment of a telephone number to a location causes delay in delivering communications. Of course, the caller may abandon the attempt to deliver the communication, an option which results in inconvenience and in some cases, negative consequences.
The same delay disadvantages are applicable generally to communication by facsimile transmitters, voice mail systems and pagers, which also are assigned identification numbers by location rather than by person. Moreover, a person who uses multiple communication devices must keep track of and distribute multiple identification numbers for his/her communication devices. For example, an individual who uses a facsimile transmission machine, a voice mail system and a pager and who has an office telephone, a home telephone and a mobile phone must keep track of and distribute at least six different identification numbers. In addition, the person has to keep track of security numbers such as PIN numbers for each device. Anyone trying to reach this person in an emergency would require access to all of these identification numbers and would be lucky to reach the person at the location first contacted.
The prior art has sought to minimize the delay in delivering communications through call forwarding systems. In such a system, a telephone call placed to a first telephone number is forwarded automatically to a second telephone number. A disadvantage of this system is that the first telephone must be used to program the system to forward the call. Thus, if a salesperson wants to have sales calls forwarded from the office to another location such as home or a mobile phone, the office telephone must be used to program the system to forward the call. Upon return to the office, the office telephone must be used to reprogram the system to remove the call forwarding feature. Another disadvantage of call forwarding systems is that the called party may not be located at the site of the second telephone number because the called party has completed the business at that site and is returning to the office or moving to another site. Advanced communication delivery options such redirection to another location, to a voice mail system or to a pager are unavailable generally. Yet another disadvantage of call forwarding systems is the lack of called party selectivity in accepting the forwarded calls. For example, the salesperson does not have the ability to distinguish between sales calls which have been forwarded and administrative or routine calls which also have been forwarded. Thus, the salesperson is disturbed at the forwarded location by all calls made to the office telephone.
Other prior art systems have sought to minimize the delay in communication delivery through the assignment of an identification number based on the person rather than the location of the communication device. These identification numbers are generally known as personal numbers. In personal number systems, efforts at communication with a particular person are directed to the personal number rather than to a plurality of identification numbers associated with a site where the party may be located. One prior art system uses an operator to answer calls made to a personal number. The operator has information regarding the location and telephone numbers of the called party and has instructions regarding the transfer of such calls. The operator forwards information regarding the received telephone call to the called party pursuant to such instructions. Among the disadvantages of this system are the incidence of human error by the operator, the delay in obtaining and dialing the other telephone number, and the high cost of employing the operator as well as the need to provide continuous updates of telephone numbers and instructions to the operator.
In another prior art personal number system, a caller who places a telephone call to a personal number of a particular party is forwarded automatically to a telephone number supplied by the party. However, telephone calls to the party are completed only so long as the party provides the system in a timely manner with a proper destination telephone number.
None of these prior art personal number systems provide features that otherwise speed the delivery of important information such as call screening features or provide communication delivery options such as facsimile transmitters, voice mail systems, or pagers.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus that speed the delivery of communications between parties.
Further, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus that provide a subscriber with a personal number as a contact number for receipt of all communications including wireline, wireless, facsimile transmissions and pagers.
There is also a need in the art for a method and apparatus which minimize the number of identification numbers and security numbers for communication devices associated with an individual.
In addition, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus that speed the proper delivery of communications by including features such as call announcement, call screening, facsimile transmitters and receivers, voice mail services and pagers.
Furthermore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus that speeds the proper delivery of communications in a flexible, readily understandable, easy-to-use and cost efficient manner.